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Monday, 22 July 2013

Glyph. (Part 1)

Isaac
stumbled up the stairs, racing to get into his room before he was otherwise
engaged in some monotonous domestic activity assigned to him by one of his
parents. Fortunately, no-one appeared to be home; he was alone.

The thunderstorm still roared outside, it was unnatural, Isaac had never
seen anything like it. The clouds were black as coal, and the lightning that
they spat out was razor sharp and so ferocious it appeared vindictive. For the first time in his life, Isaac did not feel safe in his own
home, so vicious was the storm that it threatened to penetrate the shell that
was his house.

He sat on the bed and looked down at his hand where the lightning had struck
him. I should be dead, he thought to himself. There was
no question about it, he had been struck by lightning, he should have been
severely injured at the very least. His hand however, was not only still fully
intact, it seemed to be completely unaffected. The palm of his hand was black,
but he easily brushed most of it off.

What is this
stuff?

Forcing himself to stay calm he made his way to the bathroom and placed his
hand under the cold trickle of tap water. Bracing himself for some form of pain
he winced when the water made contact, but found there nothing of the sort. The
cold water felt the same as it always did.

The water gathered in the sink, dirty and grey due to the dusty black substance
smothering his palm. Isaac became aware, looking down, that not all of the
black markings were washing off. There remained a few shapes on his hand. He
grabbed the soap. Rubbing harder, and faster, and desperately, but to no avail.
His hand was clean, but permanently marked.

The shape upon his palm resembled two crescent moons, one lying horizontally,
the other reflecting it, and shifted slightly to the left. In the centre of the
two moons was an arrowhead pointing left, with three triangles surrounding it,
two hovering just above the initial arrows' two faces, and the third just
detached from the indent in the back of the arrow. The two crescent moons also
appeared to have two spikes protruding from each of their exteriors, again
reflected perfectly on either side, so the shape reached just short of his
wrist and the beginning of his fingers, but covered the entirety of his palm.

As Isaac scrubbed mercilessly at his hand, he slowly, but surely accepted the
inevitable. It wasn't going to come off. Still- it frightened him, these
mysterious markings were not natural, they just felt... wrong. I
suppose I should be grateful i'm alive, I have that much at least, stop
worrying!

The front door opened and promptly slammed shut.

"Jesus Christ!" The voice from downstairs exclaimed. His mother was
home. For some reason he could not contemplate, he did not want to see her right
now, he didn't really want to see anybody at all. "Isaac, are you
home?"

Isaac heard her place her umbrella in the stand next to the door, and take off
her shoes and throw them onto the rack next to the umbrella stand. He guessed
the rain had made her a little less conscious of her noise level, because he
could trace every move she made from the moment she stepped through the door.
He could also hear her muttering to herself in an agitated voice, although he
could not make out exactly what she was saying.

It wasn't long before she ventured upstairs to check on him, she would worry if
he was out while the weather was this bad. The door creaked open. He saw his
mother's face.

Suddenly he could see everything. Things he had already seen through his own
eyes, but through her eyes, he could see things he never wanted to see, he
could see things he didn't understand, they all came so quickly and loudly. It
was endless. Dreams, hopes, nightmares, thoughts, memories, every synapse,
every sector of the brain became his own to explore. There was so much, too
much, all at once, He needed to get out. He could feel every fear, every
phobia, bearing down on him, more and more, like he was drowning in an ocean
that was only becoming deeper and he was sinking, down and down, and the water
was filling his lungs, and the ocean was expanding, becoming more and more
vast; infinite. Aspirations passed by in a blur, he was in the middle of moving
traffic, but everything was moving faster than usual, time was entirely subjective
and light flurried past leaving only an echo of colour and sound behind before
he could truly register or understand what it all meant. Then it faded, first
to black, then light and colour and sound and smell and taste returned; he was
himself again. Not a second had passed, but he had lived another lifetime;
another life. He had a new understanding of his mother, a new appreciation, a
new perspective altogether. But now he was himself again, he moved his arm
slightly as a test to prove to himself that this was reality, and that he was
here and not anywhere else.

His mother entered the room.

"Isaac, thank god you are home, why didn't you answer me?"

He couldn't do much aside from shrug, he was in a state of recovery, or a state
of shock. His hand was warm, and tingled slightly. As if being struck by
lightning wasn't bad enough, he now had this new discovery to contend with.

"Are you okay?" She placed a hand on his forehead, "You're
burning up, are you feeling alright?"

"Fine," He managed to blurt out, "i'm fine."

"If you say so," she paused and seemed to survey him for a minute,
"alright, what did you fancy for dinner?" He breathed a sigh of
relief.

***

The next day
Isaac had to be at work relatively early in the morning. He quickly ate
breakfast after waking up too late, and rushed out of the house. His morning
routine was so hurried that whilst he was unable to forget, he was able to
dismiss the events of the night before as something that happened to someone
else, or sometime else; in another life, in a dream. He doubted, however, that
he would ever be able to forget; that single moment when he had delved into his
mother's mind would never leave him, how could he possibly forget?

He hated work
in the mornings, he had college every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and worked
shifts at a convenience store every Saturday evening and Wednesday morning, and
out of all the days, Wednesday was the one he loathed the most due to the high
amount of people who poured into the shop and demanded service. The day,
surprisingly, was calm and mild in comparison to the night before. Few clouds
were in the sky, and the ones that were, were innocent and scattered.

Isaac was
placed on the checkout and spent the rest of the day scanning and bagging items
for thankless customers. It wasn't until one particularly inquisitive customer
commented on his 'cool tattoo' that he recalled the mark on his hand. A smile
crept onto his face. He could have some fun now, maybe Wednesday was about to
redeem itself. The next customer that came along was man only a few years older
than himself. Isaac focused, trying his utmost to recreate that moment. The man
was focusing mostly on his phone, and barely addressed Isaac, preferring
instead to hand over his basket and letting him do all the work. He reluctantly
gave up his attempt to infiltrate his mind after several attempts, accepting
that maybe he had just imagined the entire thing after all. He continued on
with his job, packing the young man's obscene and excessive amount of condoms into
a plastic bag carelessly.

"Is that
everything today?" Isaac asked, trying to sound cheerful and mask his
annoyance at the customer as well as his disappointment in his own abilities.
The man looked up at him-

And now he
could see everything, through his eyes he could access the library that was his
mind, he knew what to expect this time, and therefore was not as overwhelming
as he remembered. He found he could pinpoint the exact things he wanted to
find. He knew where to look if he wanted to explore this man's memories, he
knew where to look if he wanted to browse through his dreams, and the man's
thoughts were right there in front of him, clear as daylight. His name was
James. He was texting a girl named Alesha, and she was one of six girls he was attempting
to sleep with, but the truth was, he was failing with all of them. In fact, he
was a virgin, but was hopeful that would change soon enough. It was almost
admirable. After exploring his mind for some time he retreated back to himself.
Smiling, he told James to 'have a good day' and wished him luck, motioning to
the condoms. James left the store quickly, his face reddening slightly.

This is amazing! I can read everyone's mind, I can see what they are all
thinking!

Isaac spent
the rest of the day repeating the process with nearly every customer he had.
The process was difficult at first, but as the day passed it grew increasingly
easy to access people's minds. Sometimes he would find himself struggling to
contain his laughter, other times he was deeply saddened or even disturbed by
what he found in many people's thoughts and memories. At the end of the day, he
was exhausted, but satisfied. His hand was burning, the skin around the
markings reddening slightly.

Returning
home, he retreated immediately to his room. For some reason the TV had been
left on, playing to no-one, some female journalist was on the screen, reporting
on some major forest fire in Australia that had claimed several lives. Isaac
shut it off. He laid down on his bed and chuckled to himself as he reflected on
his newly obtained power. He had to keep saying it over and over again in his
head: I can read people's minds through their eyes. But he
sensed there was something more: that he had only begun to realise his power.
The explanations he desired felt so out of reach, but he yearned to understand,
and reach his full potential, and he would.

There is more to this than meets the eye.

He glanced down at his hand and he could feel the power bubbling beneath
the skin, beneath the marking; beneath the glyph.

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My Face... Tis a Beauty

A Few Words...

Hey there :)

So, you decide to come take a peek at my blog eh?

Well, thank you for that, I appreciate it.

Firstly, this blog was intended to write short stories, whilst I still intend to do that, it seems that I have ended up developing a few series. I shall try and update the different series as often as I can, but I cannot put a definite date of upload on any of them... apologies for that, but stick around and I will always get around to updating them :)

Secondly, if you like any of my stories, or series... or anything at all, feel free to share them, or comment or do whatever really, I do like feedback, and criticism- so long as it is constructive of course.

And finally, I guess i'm just gonna say thank you once again, and enjoy! :)